Clothes-wringer attachment



l. E. GEISSINGER.

CLOTHES WRINGER ATTACHMENT.

AFPLICATIONFILED JULY 19,1920.

Patel'lted Mar. 8, 1921.

Vea. SHOM/lujo 5 uvam/Coz 55 Z'gyf h LA UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JESSE E. GEISSINGER, OF SHALER TOWNSHIP, NEAR MILL'VALE, ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

CLOTHES-WRINGER ATTACHMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 8, 1921.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JESSE E. GEISSINGER, a citizen of the United States, residing in Shaler township, near-Millvale, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Clothes-Wringer Attachments; and I do declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable Vothers skilled in the art to which it appertainsy to make and use the same. 4 j

This invention relates broadly to clotheswringers and more specifically to an attachment therefor which is designed to feed clothes between the press-rolls, thus making it possible to perform this work in an entirely safe way and to do away With'the old method of Ifeeding the clothes between the rolls by hand, which practice oftentimes causes the operators fingers to be caught between the rolls and mashed or otherwise injured.

An object-of the invention is to provide an attachment of the above mentioned class which is such that it will'permit the clothes to be fed between the rolls from either side of the wrin er.

Another o ject of the invention is to provide an attachment of this class which is such that when the clothes are being fed from one side of the machine, the edge of the attachment on the opposite side of the machine will be automatically moved to ineffective positionand as soon as the attachment is released, the then ineffective edge thereof will automatically move into close proximity to the adjacent press-roll and will act as a scraper and prevent the clothes from Winding on this roll.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent during the course of the following description.

In the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification and in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same:

Figure l is an elevational view, with parts in section,: of a clothes wringer equipped with an attachment constructed in accordance with my invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the plane of the line 2--2 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows, the feeder being shown out of use.

Fig. 3 is a view like Fig. 2 showing the position the feeder assumes when in use.` FFlgl. 4 is a View taken on the line 1 -4 of n the drawings, wherein for the purpose of illustration is shown a preferred embodiment of my invention, the numeral 1 designates a clothes wringer of the power-driven type, the same including a downwardly inclined feed-board 2 and a pair of press-rolls 3 which are journaled in the uprights of the Wringer frame which carry cog-wheel guards 4. These guards 4 are the usual ones provided for a wringer of the type shown, and since they are in close proximity to the press-rolls, I find it convenient to use them as bearings for the shaft of my device, however, wish it to be understood that I am not to be restricted to the use of these particular bearings, because any other suitable bearings may be employed according to the type of wringer upon which my improved device is installed. The upper portions of these guards are recessed and serve as bearings for the journals 5 of the shaft 6 of my improved device, the major portion of this shaft being of non-circular formation. Secured in any suitable manner on this shaft 6 is a clothes feeding member 7 of a size to almost encompass the upper press-roller, this construction permitting the longitudinal edges of this member to be disposed on Aopposite sides of this roller in a position which makes it possibleto feed the clothes from either side of the wringer. yThe member 7 may be of any suitable construction, but I prefer to employ a plate,the same being substantially semi-circular and being of`a .diameter greater than the diameter of the upper press-roller so that its longitudinal edges will be in a proper position to be brought between the rolls for forcing the clothes therethrough. For the purpose of actuating the feeder, suitable handles 8 are supplied.

Oftentimes the action of the press-rolls is such that when the clothes are fed through from one side, they win'd around' the upper press-roll on the discharge side, which is of course undesirablev and sometimes causes lthe operators fingers to become injured in the endeavor to unwrap the clothes from this roller. I have devised means for preventing the clothes from wrapping about the press-rolls in this manner. This means,

by preference, comprises two coiled springs 9 and 10, each of which has one of its ends secured to the shaft 6 and is provided at its opposite end with an eye 11 adapted to be connected by means of a thumb screw 12 to one of the uprights of the wringer frame. Only one of these springs will be used at a time. It is to be noted that each of the springs is coiled in a direction opposite to that of the other and one of the springs rotates the shaft in one direction while the other rotates it in an opposite direction. With this construction it will be seen that after the clothes feeding plate 7 has been manually moved to force the clothes between the press-rolls and is released, the then active coiled spring will rotate the shaft in such a manner as to bring the previously ineffective edge of the feed plate into close proximity to the upper press-roll as disclosed in Fig. 2, in which position it will act as a scraper and prevent the clothes from winding about this roller. If the clothes are being fed from the right-hand side of the wrin er, the coiled spring 9 will be made to be e ective, that is, the eye 11 of this spring will be anchored by means of the, screw 12. When the parts are in this posiJ tion, the feeding member 7 will normally assume the position shown in Fig. 2. On the other hand, if it is desired to feed the clothes from the opposite side of the wringer, it will also be desirable to have the feed-plate moved in an opposite direction. In order to do this, it is only necessary to remove the screw 12 from the position in which it is shown, and pass it through the eye 11 of the spring 10 and anchor this end of this spring so that it will become effective and the spring 9 will become ineffective.

It is not desirable to have the longitudinal edge of the feed-plate to move into contact with the upper press-roll. To overcome this, I provide means for limiting the rotation of the shaft 6. This means may be of any suitable construction, however, when the device is used with the btype of bearing shown, I merely form opposed shoulders 13 at the upper portion of these bearings, with which shoulders the stop pins 14 co-act. The shoulders will be so spaced that.the proper amount of rotation will occur to prevent the feed-plate from coming intodirect contact with the upper press-roll.

I desire to state at this point, I have disclosed a similar device for the same purpose in my co-pending application Serial No. 388,871, filed June 14, 1920. By referring to this application it will be selen that the `device therein shown is quite different in construction and does not accomplish the same results that the present device does.v

yOne of the main differences between the two devices resides in the fact that the resent device permitsthe clothes to be fe from either side of the wringer, which result cannot be obtained with the other device. Also, another difference resides in the fact that provision is made in the present device for preventing the clothes' from wrapping around the press-rolls as oftentimes occurs.

In use, the' clothes will be fed from either side of the machine according tothe direction of rotation of the press-rolls. This is a point and advantage to be carefully considered in that it permits the opera-tor to feed the clothes from either side of the machine. As is customary, the clothes are first laid on the inclined feed-board 2 and moved up into contact with the press-rolls as shown in Fig. 2. When the clothes are in this position, adjacent handle 8 is gripped and the feed member 7 moved so as to bring the then ineffective longitudinal edge o-f Ithe feedmember 7 against "the clothes asshown in Fig. 3. After this, a slightl forward push of the feed-member will force the clothes between the rolls far enough to cause them I employ is extremely simple, inexpensive,-

easy to manipulate and is highly effective in operation.

A careful consideration of the foregoing description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings will enable persons skilled in the art to which this invention appertains to obtain a thorough understanding of the same. scription is thought unnecessary.

It is to be understood that the form of my yinvention herein shown and described is to be taken as a preferred form of the same, and that various minor changes in the shape, size, and arrangement may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the subjoined claims.

I claim:

1. The combination with a clothes-wringer including a pair of press-rolls; of a substantially semi-circular clothes feeding member movably mounted on the wringer over the upper press-roll, said member being of a size to almost encompass said upper roll and having its longitudinal edges disposed opposite the meeting points of the two rolls, permitting the clothes to be fed from either side of the wringer.

In view of this,'further de- Y 2. The combination with a clothes-wringr y the rolls.

3. The vcombination with a clothes-Wringer frame including a pair of press-rolls; of a shaft rotatably mounted `on the frame, a plate of semi-circular form secured intermediate its longitudinal edges on said shaft nso as to almost encompass one of saidpressrolls wherebyV its ends will be in position to feed the clothes from either side -of the wringer,

4. The combination with a clothes-wringer including a pair of. press-rolls; ofa rock shaft carried by the wringer, a manually actuated member -for feeding the clothes from either side of the wringer, said member being secured at a point centrally between its free edges on said shaft to permit one edge -to be moved to ineffective position when the other edge is moved to effective position. v

5. The combination with a clothes-wringer including a pair` of press-rolls; of a clothes feeding vmeinber movably mounted on the wringer adjacent the upper press-roll, said member being of a size to almost encompass said 'upper roll and having its longitudinal edges in a position opposite the intake and discharge points for vfeeding the clothes from either side of the wringer, and means associated with said member to automatically move one edge thereof away from the adjacent roll and simultaneously bring the other edge into close 4proximity with the roll to act as a scraper and prevent the clothes from wrapping around this roll.

6. The combination with a clothes-wrin er frame including a pair of press-rolls; 0% a clothes feeding member movably mounted on the frame close to one of said rolls, said member having its opposite longitudinal edges arranged on opposite sides of said rolls, and a coiled spring associated with said member for normally retaining one of its longitudinal edges in close proximity to the upper press-rolls and moving the other edge away from the rolls.

7. The combination with a clothes-wringer Iincluding a pair of press-rolls; of a shaft journaled on the wringer, a clothes-feeder carried by thel shaft, 'said feeder having its opposite longitudinal edges positione to be brought into close proximity to said press-rolls, a coiled spring having one of its ends secured to and coiledaround said shaft and having an attaching eye at its opposite end for connection to one of the uprights of the wringer frame, said spring serving to automatically move one edge of the feeder into close proximity to the adjac'ent press-roll.

8. The combination with a clothes-Wringer,

including press-rolls; of a shaft' rotatably mounted on the wringer, a clothes-feeder carried by the shaft,` having its effective edges positioned on opposite sides of the press-rolls, a pair of springs secured at one of theirends to said shaft and coiled in opposite directions around the latter so as to rotate it in opposite directions, and a member fastening the free end of one of the springs to the wringer frame, thus permitting a single spring to be effective at one time.

9. The combination with a clothes-Wringer including press-rolls; of a shaft rotatable on said wringer, a clothes feeding member carried by the shaft, and a lateral projection at each end of the latter, ,and shoulders for the projections to engage so as to limit the rotation of the shaft.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set I my hand. 

